Mayor Michael Bloomberg greets people at a FEMA center on Hylan Boulevard in New Dorp last month.Jan Somma-Hammel

The city needs to rebuild its coastline after Sandy -- and build it better, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

"Let me be clear: We are not going to abandon the waterfront," Bloomberg said. "We are not going to leave the Rockaways or Coney Island or Staten Island's South Shore. But we can't just rebuild what was there and hope for the best. We have to build smarter and stronger and more sustainably."

Bloomberg offered a first glimpse at the proposals for rebuilding during a speech at yesterday's breakfast staged by the Regional Plan Association and the League of Conservation Voters.

He said Seth Pinsky, president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, will be the point man for the city's recovery plans -- and preparation for future storms and side effects of climate change. On the Island and in other affected boroughs, the effort will include local elected officials, City Hall's Sandy liaison Peter Spencer said.

Bloomberg said the plans for rebuilding will cover "everything from public and private housing, to hospitals and schools, to transportation and parks, to businesses and nonprofits, including cultural institutions like the New York Aquarium."

"To succeed, the plans must include the input of the people who live and work in these communities -- and they will. Members of the community will assist in shaping and implementing ÂÂeach community plan -- and that will be just the beginning of our work."

One crucial step is revising building codes to strengthen standards for flood protection, Bloomberg said. Two-thirds of all the homes damaged by Sandy are outside FEMA's existing 100-year flood maps, he noted.

FEMA's new maps, he said, "will guide us in setting new construction requirements. And we'll add new structural requirements to ensure that buildings can withstand intense winds and waves that we expect down the road."

The city will also change regulations so homeowners aren't penalized for elevating their houses out of the flood plain, Bloomberg said.

"There are height restrictions in most of these areas for one-and-two family homes, so we will work with Speaker Quinn and the City Council to increase those height restrictions so people can elevate their homes and still build back what they lost," Bloomberg said. "We'll also work with the Council to allow small businesses that are in residential zones to rebuild -- so long as they invest in flood-mitigation measures."

Spencer noted that many homes in hard-hit areas will need a variance to be rebuilt as they were. Some, he said, were too wide for their lots -- so one option may be to allow people to build higher to compensate for that space, he said.

Bloomberg seemed to shoot down one oft-mentioned option.

"Over the past month, there has been a lot of discussion about sea walls. It would be nice if we could stop the tides from coming in, but King Canute couldn't do it -- and neither can we," Bloomberg said. "However, there may be some coastline protections that we can build ... from berms and dunes, to jetties and levees."

City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), who pushed the mayor for the reinstatement of the Staten Island Growth Task Force to tackle such questions, said he has already spoken with Pinsky. He said he wasn't sure yet whether the task force would become a subset of Pinsky's work, but that he's open to other forms of moving forward.

"I don't care what form it takes -- as long as the Staten Island electeds, and the city, state and federal decision makers are in the same room, so that we have input as to the ultimate direction," Oddo said.

"I think the mayor is putting some structure in place," he continued, "and hopefully with that structure comes the process to get answers and clarity for people -- because the confusion right now is really what's fueling a lot of the desperation," said. "People want answers. 'What am I going to be able to do?' And we need to get them answers."

Spencer said more-concrete answers and options for homeowners would come sooner rather than later.

"You can't leave people wondering what's going to happen," Spencer said. "But at the same time, you move fast and ... you make mistakes that you don't want to pay for."

Bloomberg said the city's infrastructure also needs to be ready to withstand future natural disasters.

He's directing Pinsky to work with a city sustainability team to determine how to make every essential network in the city -- transportation, power, gas, telecommunications and hospitals -- withstand a Category 2 hurricane, record-breaking heat wave or other disaster.---Advance Editor Brian J. Laline contributed to this report.